In Anoka County, workshops aim to ease road to e-reading

With electronic books riding a growing wave of popularity, the Anoka County library system is bringing back another popular item: classes on how to check out and download free e-titles from its collection.

The library system offered the free classes last year, and more than 450 people attended. The new classes, which start today with a session for Kindle users in Columbia Heights, are timed for folks who got eReaders and other mobile devices as holiday gifts.

During the 2010 holiday season, e-book sales surged by more than 200 percent nationally, making them the top-selling book format, surpassing all printed formats for that period, according to the Association of American Publishers. This holiday season, consumer electronics spending was predicted to shatter records, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, thanks in part to demand for tablet computers like the iPad, as well as e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook.

Tapping into libraries

Many of these new owners choose to buy e-book titles through online bookstores, but libraries are experiencing a strong increase in demand as well.

Since January 2011, when the Anoka County libraries went live with e-books, they have seen 45,880 downloads, said Monica Campbell, the adult services manager for the system. The system's 2012 budget reflects that appetite, with a 34 percent increase in spending on electronic books.

"People are getting more and more used to getting things on demand -- right now, right here in my hand," Campbell said. "It's more convenient. They can check out a book even if they're on vacation in Florida or awake at 2 in the morning or stuck at the doctor's office."

The Anoka County Library System offers free access to those books, in addition to the nearly 4,500 titles that it has bought.

For most new e-reader users, the library represents not only a source for e-books, but for information about how to use them in the first place.

"We have people showing up right on their way from Best Buy," Campbell said. "They haven't even taken it out of the package or charged it up."

While librarians in the system won't set up e-readers for patrons, they do offer those classes. "Libraries have always been about literacy," Campbell said. "Now we're about digital literacy, too."

The new round of 12 classes runs throughout this month and is divided into two types: eight classes for Kindle users and four for users of Nooks, iPads and other mobile devices.